For the quarter ended October 31, 2012, revenues were $120.3 million, down $9.6 million or 7.3 percent from the same quarter last year, with revenue declines mainly driven by lower recycling commodity prices, lower landfill disposal volumes, and lower roll-off price and volumes.

The company's net loss attributable to common shareholders was ($21.0) million, or ($0.68) per common share for the quarter, compared to net loss of ($0.8) million, or ($0.03) per share for the same quarter last year. The current quarter includes a $1.8 million severance and reorganization charge related to the August realignment, a $0.1 million expense related to the sale of the Maine Energy Recovery Company facility ("Maine Energy"), a $3.9 million loss on derivative instruments, and a $9.7 million loss on debt extinguishment related to the repurchase of the company's second lien notes in October. The quarter ended October 31, 2011 included a $0.4 million legal settlement charge, a $0.1 million development
project charge, and a $0.1 million gain on disposal of discontinued operations net of taxes.

Excluding the unusual and one-time charges from each period and assuming no tax impact, the company's net loss attributable to common shareholders was ($5.7) million, or ($0.18) per common share for the quarter, compared to net loss of ($0.2) million, or ($0.01) per share for the same quarter last year.

Operating income was $4.4 million for the quarter, down $7.2 million from the same quarter last year. Excluding the unusual and one-time charges from each period, Adjusted Operating Income* in the current quarter was $6.2 million, down $5.9 million from the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA* was $24.4 million for the quarter, down $6.1 million from same quarter last year.

"The northeastern U.S. economy remained a difficult environment through our second quarter," said John W. Casella, chairman and CEO of Casella Waste Systems. "Recycling commodity prices, landfill volumes at our Western New York landfills, and our roll-off collection line-of-business all underperformed our expectations in the quarter and, as such, we have lowered our guidance for the current fiscal year."

"We believe that broad uncertainty in the national and global economy has translated to declining economic activity across our region over the last 6 months," Casella said. "This trend was especially pronounced in the construction and demolition (C&D) market, where we experienced an unexpected 12.9 percent decline in roll-off revenues year-over-year on lower volumes, weak pricing, and a tough comparison to the second quarter last year when we saw increased demand from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee clean-up activity. Despite this weakness, our pricing programs in the commercial and residential lines-of-business remained on track with positive 1.9 percent pricing in the quarter."

"Recycling commodity prices hit bottom in September and began to rebound modestly in October and November as Chinese and domestic demand reemerged," Casella said. "We have taken what we believe is a conservative view on recycling commodity prices for the remainder of our fiscal year with pricing expected to remain consistent with current levels. Maximizing our landfill capacity utilization in Western New York remains a challenge given the depressed volumes of C&D, special waste and residual streams from Marcellus Shale drilling activity.

"We accomplished two important strategic goals in the quarter which we believe position the company well for the future, specifically:

"As separately announced this afternoon, we have completed the sale of the property containing our Maine Energy facility to the City of Biddeford, Maine. We expect to permanently close Maine Energy during our third quarter fiscal 2013 at which time we will dismantle the facility and begin transferring the municipal solid waste that was routed to Maine Energy to other disposal facilities that we own or operate. We expect the sale of Maine Energy to improve our financial results on a full year basis from fiscal year 2012, with consolidated Adjusted EBITDA margins expected to improve by roughly 70 basis points, operating income expected to improve by $7.9 million and cash flows expected to increase by roughly $5.6 million per year."

"During the second quarter we redeemed our 11.0 percent $180.0 million second lien notes due July 2014 with the proceeds from a $46.0 million common stock offering, a $125.0 million add-on to our existing 7.75 percent senior subordinated notes due February 2019, and borrowings from our senior secured revolving credit facility. This set of transactions improved our credit metrics by lowering leverage, reduced our cash interest expense by roughly $9.0 million per year, and gives us over 3 years before our next major debt maturity."

Fiscal 2013 OutlookDue primarily to the negative impact of lower than expected recycling commodity prices and landfill volumes, softness in the roll-off line-of-business, and project and contract delays discussed below, the company adjusted its fiscal year guidance in the following categories:

Revenues between $468.0 million and $478.0 million.

Adjusted EBITDA* between $96.0 million and $100.0 million.

The negative variances from our fiscal year forecast as presented in August to this current forecast include the following impacts from the second quarter and our expectations about the remainder of the fiscal year:

While we expected average recycling commodity price per ton to decline through our second quarter, actual commodity prices declined below the levels we had forecasted in August. Given the actual lower results from our second quarter and our current revised commodity price forecast for the remainder of our fiscal year, we expect recycling Adjusted EBITDA to be approximately $1.3 million lower than that reflected in our August fiscal year forecast.

While we expected disposal volumes to decline through our second quarter, actual volumes and pricing declined below the levels we had forecasted in August, mainly due to lower C&D volumes, lower special waste volumes, and contract delays for drilling solidification work at our Western New York landfills. Given the actual lower results from our second quarter and our current revised forecast for the remainder of our fiscal year, we expect disposal Adjusted EBITDA to be approximately $2.8 million lower than that reflected in our August fiscal year forecast.

The roll-off collection line-of-business underperformed our August forecast projections with weaker than expected net revenue due to lower pricing and volumes. Given the actual lower results from our second quarter and our current revised forecast for the remainder of our fiscal year, we expect roll-off Adjusted EBITDA to be approximately $1.1 million lower than that reflected in our August fiscal year forecast.

The delayed start-up of the company's joint venture water treatment facility at its McKean landfill is expected reduce the facility's forecasted Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal year by $0.7 million from the August fiscal year forecast.

*Non-GAAP Financial MeasuresIn addition to disclosing financial results prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States (GAAP), the company also discloses earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, adjusted for accretion, depletion of landfill operating lease obligations, gain on sale of assets, development project charge write-offs, legal settlement charges, bargain purchase gains, asset impairment charges, environmental remediation charges, severance and reorganization charges, as well as expenses from divestiture and financing costs (Adjusted EBITDA) which is a non-GAAP measure. The company also discloses earnings before interest, taxes, adjusted for gain on sale of assets, development project charge write-off, legal settlement charges, bargain purchase gains, asset impairment charges,
environmental remediation charges, as well as severance and reorganization charges (Adjusted Operating Income) which is a non-GAAP measure. The company also discloses Free Cash Flow, which is defined as net cash provided by operating activities, less capital expenditures attributable to growth and maintenance (excluding acquisition related capital), less payments on landfill operating leases, less assets acquired through financing leases, plus proceeds from the sale of property and equipment, plus contributions from non-controlling interest holder, which is a non-GAAP measure. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Operating Income are reconciled to net income (loss), while Free Cash Flow is reconciled to net cash provided by operating activities.

The company presents Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Operating Income, and Free Cash Flow because it considers them important supplemental measures of its performance and believes they are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of the company's results. Management uses these non-GAAP measures to further understand the company's "core operating performance." The company believes its "core operating performance" represents its on-going performance in the ordinary course of operations. The company believes that providing Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Operating Income, and Free Cash Flow to investors, in addition to corresponding income statement and cash flow statement measures, affords investors the benefit of viewing its performance using the same financial metrics that the management team uses in making many key decisions and understanding
how the core business and its results of operations may look in the future. The company further believes that providing this information allows its investors greater transparency and a better understanding of its core financial performance. In addition, the instruments governing the company's indebtedness use EBITDA (with additional adjustments) to measure its compliance with covenants such as interest coverage, leverage and debt incurrence.

Non-GAAP financial measures are not in accordance with or an alternative for GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Operating Income, and Free Cash Flow should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP, and may be different from Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Operating Income, or Free Cash Flow presented by other companies.

Conference call to discuss quarter The company will host a conference call to discuss these results on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. ET. Individuals interested in participating in the call should dial (877) 548-9590 or for international participants (720) 545-0037 at least 10 minutes before start time. The call will also be webcast; to listen, participants should visit Casella Waste Systems' website at http://ir.casella.com and follow the appropriate link to the webcast. A replay of the call will be available on the company's website, or by calling (855) 859-2056 or (404) 537-3406 (Conference ID 70181048) until 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, December 11, 2012.

Safe Harbor StatementCertain matters discussed in this press release are "forward-looking statements" intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such by the context of the statements, including words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "may," "will," "would," "intend," "estimate," "guidance" and other similar expressions, whether in the negative or affirmative. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the industry and markets in which we operate and management's beliefs and assumptions. We cannot guarantee that we actually will achieve the plans, intentions, expectations or guidance disclosed in the forward-looking statements made. Such forward-looking statements, and all
phases of our operations, involve a number of risks and uncertainties, any one or more of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include or relate to, among other things: current economic conditions that have adversely affected and may continue to adversely affect our revenues and our operating margin; we may be unable to reduce costs or increase pricing or volumes sufficiently to achieve estimated Adjusted EBITDA and other targets; landfill operations and permit status may be affected by factors outside our control; we may be required to incur capital expenditures in excess of our estimates; fluctuations in energy pricing or the commodity pricing of our recyclables may make it more difficult for us to predict our results of operations or meet our estimates; we may incur environmental
charges or asset impairments in the future; and we may be unable to decommission our waste-to-energy facility on a timely basis and shift waste volumes to other landfill sites. There are a number of other important risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These additional risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, those detailed in Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2012.

We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.